National Parks Petition

VCDL is readying postcards for distribution at gun shows, but they are also setup now to send emails to President Bush, National Park Director Fran Mainella, and Department of the Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

Here is a message from Phillip Van Cleave:
Action needed on National Parks!
The following letter needs to be sent to the key U.S. Representatives and Senators in your state to get the VCDL Petition for Rule Making out of limbo. If we want to be able to carry a gun for self-defense in a National Park it looks like we are going to have to keep pressing the issue or it will simply sit on somebody's desk until we have a new President...

HOUSE VERSION:

The Honorable ___________
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20510
December nn, 2005

Dear Representative __________:

I need your help in supporting the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) sponsored Petition for Rule Making to amend CFR 36, Regulation 2.4.

Current Park Service regulations prohibit all viable forms of self-defense, even for off duty law enforcement and citizens with concealed handgun permits! The amended regulation would assimilate local gun laws allowing law-abiding citizens and off-duty law enforcement officers to carry defensive firearms in National Parks unless such carry is prohibited by the state where the Park resides. The assimilation of local firearms laws is used in our National Forests and it works well.

The VCDL, together with over 40 co-petitioners, submitted a petition to amend regulation 2.4 to the Department of the Interior February 11, 2005. The petitioners and I need your help to get the commonsense changes in the VCDL petition published in the next Federal Register for comment and for subsequent implementation.
Here is an Internet link to the submitted petition: http://www.vcdl.org/new/Petition_for_Rulemaking.pdf

Please contact the Department of the Interior's Secretary, Gale Norton, on my behalf and tell her to publish the VCDL petition amending CFR 36 Regulation 2.4 without delay in the next Federal Register as a matter of public safety.

* The VCDL petition to amend CFR 36, Regulation 2.4 would only allow law abiding citizens, and off duty law enforcement officers to carry defensive firearms and ONLY use them in self-defense or defense of another so long as it is legal in the state where the Park resides.

* The VCDL petition honors the citizen's right to self-defense while preserving the National Parks authority to regulate hunting, fishing and other weapons, traps or nets.

* The VCDL petition respects the authority of the People to determine what manner of self-defense is acceptable, subject to reasonable regulation by the States.

* The current regulation represents a comprehensive ban on self-defense, written at a prior time when the 2nd Amendment was relegated to the dangerous 'collective' rights theory. Today, legal scholars, courts, the US Department of Justice, state legislatures, and the Congress all agree that the 2nd Amendment secures individual rights to both keep, and bear arms. The current regulation stands in defiance of the will of Congress, the People, the President, the Constitution and common sense.

* The VCDL petition has bipartisan support in Congress, and among the People.

I ask that you join the bipartisan team of supporters to get VCDL's petition to the Department of the Interior published without delay, in the next Federal Register.

Please contact me with any questions, and let me know when you have contacted the Department of the Interior.

Sincerely,
[Name]
[Address]
[Telephone # ]

--

SENATE VERSION:

The Honorable ___________
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
December nn, 2005

Dear Senator __________:

I need your help in supporting the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) sponsored Petition for Rule Making to amend CFR 36, Regulation 2.4.

Current Park Service regulations prohibit all viable forms of self-defense, even for off duty law enforcement and citizens with concealed handgun permits! The amended regulation would assimilate local gun laws allowing law-abiding citizens and off-duty law enforcement officers to carry defensive firearms in National Parks unless such carry is prohibited by the state where the Park resides. The assimilation of local firearms laws is used in our National Forests and it works well.

The VCDL, together with over 40 co-petitioners, submitted a petition to amend regulation 2.4 to the Department of the Interior February 11, 2005. The petitioners and I need your help to get the commonsense changes in the VCDL petition published in the next Federal Register for comment and for subsequent implementation.
Here is an Internet link to the submitted petition: http://www.vcdl.org/new/Petition_for_Rulemaking.pdf

Please contact the Department of the Interior's Secretary, Gale Norton, on my behalf and tell her to publish the VCDL petition amending CFR 36 Regulation 2.4 without delay in the next Federal Register as a matter of public safety.

* The VCDL petition to amend CFR 36, Regulation 2.4 would only allow law abiding citizens, and off duty law enforcement officers to carry defensive firearms and ONLY use them in self-defense or defense of another so long as it is legal in the state where the Park resides.

* The VCDL petition honors the citizen's right to self-defense while preserving the National Parks authority to regulate hunting, fishing and other weapons, traps or nets.

* The VCDL petition respects the authority of the People to determine what manner of self-defense is acceptable, subject to reasonable regulation by the States.

* The current regulation represents a comprehensive ban on self-defense, written at a prior time when the 2nd Amendment was relegated to the dangerous 'collective' rights theory. Today, legal scholars, courts, the US Department of Justice, state legislatures, and the Congress all agree that the 2nd Amendment secures individual rights to both keep, and bear arms. The current regulation stands in defiance of the will of Congress, the People, the President, the Constitution and common sense.

* The VCDL petition has bipartisan support in Congress, and among the People.

I ask that you join the bipartisan team of supporters to get VCDL's petition to the Department of the Interior published without delay, in the next Federal Register.

Please contact me with any questions, and let me know when you have contacted the Department of the Interior.

Please bring up Senator Allen's bill, S 4057, for a vote as soon as possible in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee!

This important bill would allow law-abiding citizens to be able to defend themselves while in a National Park. It is critical that S
4057 clear the committee and be brought to the Floor for a vote quickly!

Senator George Allen of Virginia, you might say, is leaving
Congress with his guns a-blazing.
The Republican, who was ousted by Democrat Jim Webb, evidently
has introduced legislation that would allow gun owners to bring their
weapons into national parks, as long as the states the parks are
located in don't prohibit the practice.
Mike Kinsey, writing for Ohioans For Concealed Carry, says, "The
arbitrary prohibition of your right to self-defense in a National
Park needs to end."
"Your life is not worth less while visiting one of our country's
beautiful parks than it is anywhere else you may be," argues Kinsey.
"Personally, I believe that lonely wilderness trails may be one of
the places that I would most want to have my self-defense firearm."
Great. That's all we need, a backcountry full of pistol-packing
hikers ready to take you on. This guy seems a little over the edge to
me.
"...any location that is known to be frequented by tourists would
probably be very attractive to criminals," he goes on. "Tourists are
generally carrying a lot of money and are unfamiliar with their
surroundings. I am certainly not a criminal mastermind. If I can see
that this environment makes one more vulnerable to violent attack, I
am certain those with less scruples have realized it as well."
Gee, Mike, we seem to have made it into the 21st Century without
a spate of backcountry holdups (although there were a handful of
stagecoach holdups back in the early 1900s in Yellowstone).
Do we really want to legalize toting guns around in national
parks? Frankly, I'd feel safer in the backcountry knowing that guns
are prohibited rather than worrying that the next person I encounter
might be packing heat.

--

BUT, our friends at Ohio Concealed Carry are working to get it passed!

Bill Introduced to Allow Carry in National Parks
Written by Mike Kinsey
Friday, 17 November 2006

Senator George Allen (R-Virginia) has introduced SB 4057, the National
Park Second Amendment Restoration and Personal Protection Act of 2006.
If adopted as law, this legislation would allow legal carry of
firearms into National Parks so long as the state does not prohibit
carry in all parks.

The arbitrary prohibition of your right to self-defense in a National
Park needs to end. Your life is not worth less while visiting one of
our country's beautiful parks than it is anywhere else you may be.
Personally, I believe that lonely wilderness trails may be one of the
places that I would most want to have my self-defense firearm. Armed
citizens regularly argue that we may not be able to wait for 911 to
save us. Imagine the additional delay that will occur when you're
hiking in the middle of nowhere! Also, any location that is known to
be frequented by tourists would probably be very attractive to
criminals. Tourists are generally carrying a lot of money and are
unfamiliar with their surroundings. I am certainly not a criminal
mastermind. If I can see that this environment makes one more
vulnerable to violent attack, I am certain those with less scruples
have realized it as well.

It is up to those of us that care about the safety of ourselves and
our families to get this legislation enacted. Please contact your U.S.
Senators and urge them to support this bill. Tell them why it is
important to you. Contact Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and ask
him to fast track SB 4057. Spread the word to other gun owners and
concealed handgun licensees about this issue.

Senator Frist can be reached at: (202) 224-3344 or through his website.
You can find contact information for your U.S. Senators here.

Neither Isakson nor Chambliss has their staffers take down your personal information. So, you can call them locally to voice your opinion, and you can send them an internet message using the contact information at http://georgiacarry.org/

The last method does take down your personal information, but you have contacted them by phone AND in writing without them knowing it was necessarily the same person.

I do not think it is cheating.

And it takes only a minute, since the contact info and the information about the bill are all at http://georgiacarry.org/ which you can have open in front of you when calling or writing!

Did the staffer also report a good chance of passage? Any indication of whether it will be scheduled for a vote in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee? That is the next thing that must happen. Nothing else matters until that happens.